December 7, 2009

I’ve wanted to write my own thoughts on this for quite some time and this article although I didn’t find it extremely thought-provoking did provide an impetus for me to put my musings on my blog.

Firstly let me give my stance on the Global Warming or Climate Change agenda which henceforth I’ll refer to as GW/CC. To do that I’ll define what climate means based on the Oxford American Dictionary(it’s the default on the Mac so don’t ask me why I didn’t choose an English Dictionary):

climate |ˈklīmit|
noun
the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period : our cold, wet climate | agricultural development is constrained by climate.

Yes our earth is warmer than it was before. Yes the climate changes. It’s changing every day. Forget the macro level of climate change they all want us to fixate on for now, let’s consider that we do have seasons(for us in the caribbean it’s the Dry and Rainy seasons) which change over months. Going on an even more micro scale we do have days that are rainy, days that are more cloudy than others and some days with just blazing hot sun. I don’t think anyone can dispute that climate change no matter on what level is an ongoing process. If our climate didn’t change I think that’s when I’d be worried.

The real issue is whether or not this climate change is man-made. This I am not so sure about. The evidence provided by the main proponents of the GW/CC agenda has been without consensus. There are many scientists that agree with it and they have been giving a very vocal voice while there are many scientists who have disagreed and well their voice is quite negligible in comparison. Anyone that tries to deny GW/CC has been labeled quite appropriately a ‘denier’. And the choice of a stronger more emotional word could not have been better. ‘Denier’ has long been attributed to the very small group of people that deny that the Holocaust happened. It’s a clever choice of word to immediately cause an association with something we know that happened. Thus any denier of any cause subconsciously becomes a skeptic or a conspiracy theorist. Now while that might be true for some groups(the birthers? and truthers?) it doesn’t necessarily apply to all groups.

The Caribbean is very right in trying to obtain certain terms under which GW/CC will be regulated at the conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hell, I’d say it’s in all third world countries best interest to obtain the best terms possible under which GW/CC is controlled. Why? Well because it can stunt our growth. Almost everyone’s purpose in life is some sort of advancement. Third world countries don’t want to have that status forever however if GW/CC is regulated by using Carbon Credits as Mr. Gore would have us do, then it would certainly hamper our growth. A tax for your carbon emissions? Does that mean they’ll tax humans for their carbon emissions over a long period of time? What about the cows? And the plants(only at night)? Yes, I am being facetious but I’ll be quite direct when I state that Mr. Gore in my personal opinion is an absolute idiot and by him winning a Nobel Prize for ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ just makes him an idiot with a Nobel Prize.

Ad hominem arguments aside, Mr. Gore would like to create a system of trading a ‘commodity’ that would be global? This reminds me of something. Oil is traded everyday and at least for us in Trinidad, it’s a major factor in our economic growth. However when certain nations(yes you America) decided to speculate on oil trading(something that was previously forbidden but their bankers convinced their government to open up this market) we had a dramatic rise in oil prices which countries in the UAE used to fuel their economic growth and then a massive bust where some of these countries are facing bankruptcy. And now Mr. Gore wants to create another derivative market based on trading carbon credits that will only make the rich get richer and of course inevitably lead to another bust which affects not just one nation but the entire world? I don’t see how this is a good thing.

Despite the inconclusive evidence for GW/CC being man-made and the fact that Mr. Gore just wants to make him and the bankers even richer I have another reason why I don’t buy into the GW/CC agenda. All of the third world countries have been advancing at rapid paces. The BRIC(Brazil, Russia, India and China) are the emergent economies right now and as your economy advances quality of life improves overall. This means the use of cars, electricity plants, air conditioners, radiators etc. All of which don’t help the carbon emissions but improve the quality of life, at least the first world nations would say so since they are all ubiquitous there. However whatever is agreed upon in Copenhagen could entirely slow down the development of these nations.

Now I don’t care either way(should I?) about BRIC and what the quality of life should be like there but I do live in a third world nation. I want all the great technological advances that Americans and Europeans have taken for granted for a few decades. It irks me that they have ‘got theirs’ and now that we who are now catching up would like to ‘get ours’ they can come up with a way to prevent that. Saving the world is important(if you do believe it needs saving) however start with yourselves. Yes you Mr. Gore with your massive electricity bill and fleet of cars that all have the air condition on as they speed along to wherever you’d like to go, spewing the same carbon dioxide you’d have us believe is killing the earth for our future children. I just see this as another way to prevent the third world countries from advancing. Sorry. Call me a conspiracy theorist but it is in their direct advantage to do so. But why would they? Money of course. The world is controlled by money-men. They want more of it, they can’t get enough of it. Our labourers work for less. Our great minds work for less. Our natural resources(gold, diamonds, oil, aluminium, copper, labour etc) they can obtain for cheaper than if the third world country was now first world.

I have no problem if you disagree with everything I have said here. If you have any evidenceto the contrary to what I’ve been saying here then feel free to correct me. I just want to stimulate thought no matter what direction it takes, just so we can find the right solution. Ignorance is bliss. It’s extremely cliché but it’s an old adage for a reason. It’s very relevant. “Free your mind Neo!”. The only difference in this case is I don’t care if you choose the red pill or the blue pill!

Keep safe and think critically.

P.S. Shameless plug but my user-created news site (Yabil) is soon to be launched. Check it out and leave some feedback. Maybe post an article you’ve always wanted to write. The site’s aim is to provide news from around the world that’s written by a random user or amateur/professional journalists and to pay them based on the revenue their content has generated. I think I might upload what I wrote here on it, could be a nice op/ed piece heh!

P.P.S For the record I do know that Carbon Dioxide in excess can be bad for the environment. However as a greenhouse warming gas it pales in comparison to the contribution of water vapour. It can also contribute to raising the acidity level of certain bodies of water by creating carbonic acid but haven’t we been there before with the entire acid rain(Sulphur dioxide was the culprit then) movement. Haven’t heard about acid rain in a while. I guess it’s been eradicated by all those industrial corporations that have reduced their pollution levels(I’m being facetious again).